You know what this series reminds me of? The WCF of the NBA playoffs between San Antonio and Utah. Why? Well because Utah had no business being in the series. One of the ESPN analysts said it best when he said the series would go to five games. The Spurs would abuse the Jazz at home to go up 2-0, then Utah would play an inspired game three at home, then come back down and lose to a superior team. The Ducks lose game five on Wednesday when hell freezes over. Ottawa will see the best Ducks team game it has seen in the series, zero doubt!
Ottawa pegged the hell out of Giguere in the first period on Monday night, but as usual, could not finish. Sure they got one with 0.3 seconds in the first, then followed that up by showing up flat in the second. Ottawa had a whole bunch of calls go their way as well. Chris Neil is a pansy, Emery deserves some kind of acting award and Alfredsson will be lucky to survive game five to shake hands at the end.
Ottawa laid a huge egg and has no business being on the ice tomorrow. What were they thinking after the first, did they really think Anaheim wasn’t going to give everything they had? It was the biggest game of their lives, at home with the Canadian drowd, no Pronger. It was like a perfect storm of bad for the Ducks and good for the Senators. Good teams step up when they are faced with adversity, the Ducks are that team.
As for Chris Pronger, his presence was missed on the powerplay and in the corners. The Senators were banging Huskins and DiPenta around, jarring pucks loose and forcing them to make perfect passes to Ottawa’s point men. The forecheck also made Ric Jackman look downright scary, how many times did he hand the puck off? Does the coach bench him on Wednesday in favor of the defensive minded DiPenta who really didn’t look all that bad last night? Tough call, but I say you do it, because he doesn’t usually make those kind of mistakes in his own end and wont shoot enough from the point to get shots blocked like Jackman did. Plus, Joe D. has been on the team from the start of all this and simply deserves to be on the ice.
Another player who deserves to be on the ice for game five is Shawn Thornton. Why was he scratched for game four? Motzko and Carter? I am all for playing the right guys in a game, but I think that Thornton should be on the ice when the Ducks clinch. He has been a nice depth forward all season and has played his best hockey of the year in these finals, that fourth line was out of their mind in the first two games.
Come on boys, end this so we can stick it right up in the Kings face!
